Third Brother Theory

So this is my take on the mysterious third Holmes brother.

I think that the third brother was the agent that got killed in action to get the information for Mycroft on the Terrorist case.Why?

Well first of all, the two times that agent had been mentioned, I've observed that, when he was mentioned in Mycroft's Office, Mycroft acted a bit fidgety and when Sherlock mentioned him, Mycroft exasperated and sort of... Sad really.Also, when Sherlock talked about him he said that the agent was probably "Showing off" too much and that was what got him killed.Sherlock said this with an expression that said in a way that this has probably already happened before and also we know how much the Holmes Brothers like to show off, don't we?

I'd like to know what you think and your theories

SH: Can’t handle a broken heart? How very telling.MH: Don’t be smart.SH: That takes me back. [adopts creepy child voice]“Don’t be smart Sherlock, I’m the smart one.”MH [darkly]: I am the smart one.SH: I used to think I was an idiotMH: I'm living in a world of goldfish.SH: I don’t know. No, I thought perhaps you might have found yourself a…goldfish.MH: Change the subject. Now.

Re: Third Brother Theory

What I wonder about an eventual third Holmes brother is : Does Sherlock know he exists?If he was born between Mycroft and Sherlock and something happened to him before Sherlock's birth, secret could have been kept.That's pure imagination, but I can figure out the third holmes being behind Moriarty broadcast.

Re: Third Brother Theory

I think the brother would get a more important role than a dead agent that was mentioned in passing by. The whole terrorist plot didn't even seem too important. I expect the third brother to either get a good storyline or to turn out to not exist.

Re: Third Brother Theory

Could the Third Brother be the East Wind brother? Sherlock never said "A story Mycroft used to tell me" which to me would make more sense; John knows Mycroft. And then Sherlock adds "He wasn't a very nice older brother" a weird detail to add considering that John knows how the two siblings are to eachother, and odd to me, considering that Mycroft is rarely ever outright mean to Sherlock. They have a rival certainly, and children do often grow up different than adults, but the detail just doesn't fit to me.

Then add on the fact that Mycroft is a guide of sorts in Sherlock's mind palace. That doesn't seem like the type of role you would give to a brother that tormented you as a child. Rather it seems like the role that you assign the older brother that always told you what to do and was usually right, having the advantage of the wisdom of age. Hence, the rivalry, Sherlock likes to be right and Mycroft is his biggest challenge.

Maybe this other brother (Middle or Eldest, since we know that this brother is older than Sherlock, but not whether he's older than Mycroft) is a brother that they grew up with. (Middle seems more likely to me, old enough to torment Sherlock, but not old enough to be able to touch Mycroft. It would also explain the age difference between the two brothers. We know that their mother left her profession to have children, as they weren't likely accidental it seems unusual to have children that are that many years apart. Stick another child in the middle and it seems much more likely) Maybe he's a really Psychopath, unlike Sherlock, perhaps that's why Sherlock is always so touchy about people calling him a psychopath, even though usually he brushes off what people say about him (though I admit that is reaching, and he probably just wants to be right).

So Mycroft does something to protect Sherlock. Who knows what he does. Maybe none of their family knew that Sherlock was being tormented and Mycroft finally discovers it. It'd be a great explanation for why he is so emotionally cut off, the death of a dog just doesn't do it for me in the way of explanations, and Sherlock isn't really the type to share his problems with others. Hence the rivalry between Mycroft and Sherlock widens further; he would be unlikely to want or think he needs Mycroft's help. Mycroft, likely being a young agent of the government, uses his connections to remove the problem. Maybe he frames him for a crime, or has him put in a high security mental institution. Or maybe he tries to kill him, and though he believes he's succeeded, actually fails. Whatever he does it's not nice or merciful and it puts his brother out of the picture, imaginably forever.

The guilt Mycroft feels over not seeing it sooner would be a huge push towards his feeling to protect Sherlock, beyond what a normal older brother might. He blames himself for not noticing earlier, and feels guilty about the way that Sherlock turned out. So he becomes like a third parent to Sherlock during the later part of his childhood. Probably why at their Christmas Mycroft points out that they "Never do this." Seems odd for a family to not get together from Christmas, even a family like the Holmes' so it could be that they no longer get together for Christmas since they're older son vindictively punished another of their sons for torturing their third son. I feel like that does put a damper on the holidays.

This brother is probably relatively equal in intelligence to the other two, but instead of putting his intelligence toward ammassing power, like Mycroft, or to solving crimes, like Sherlock, he puts his intelligence into being cruel. Now he's managed to escape whatever fate Mycroft ended up lining up for him and he's back. And he likely blames Sherlock for his fate. So what better way to torment Sherlock than to make him believe that Moriarty, one of the people that could truly harm is back, while still maintaining secrecy about his indentity, probably to keep Mycroft off his tracks.

That makes all the references to "the east wind coming" foreshadowing. Sherlock's Elder brother is the East Wind. A pretty ominous considering Sherlock's "The East Wind takes us all in the end" comment

Re: Third Brother Theory

Ok so this gets a bit meta... bare with me a sec it's a bumpy ride.

I'm a massive supporter of third sibling theory, and it's actually got nothing to do with Mycroft's seemingly ominous statement...

Let's go back right back to when Mycroft is born. He's the eldest. Precocious and bright he's evidently a strange solitary child. His mother gave up being a heavily published mathematician to have kids, that's a proper text book... that means she didn't have Mycroft when she was just 16 more likely pushing 30 or even older. With her young son being an odd solitary little bod she'd have wanted to give him a sibling or siblings as quickly possible as she's not getting any younger... she's evidently not stupid children born 7 or more years apart generally grow up a very different relationship dynamic, like having two families, if there are no siblings in the intervening gap. But again being older they may have had less luck conceiving... in the late 70's early 80's when we suspect Sherlock was born IVF wasn't common but the Holmes family are obviously of decent means so paying for private treatment for Mummy Holmes to have their longed for second child isn't inconeiveable by any means ( Did ya see what I did there? )

From this there are many possible scenarios which one can delve into,

Multiple birth where Sherlocks sibling dies./stillborn ("Why would she still be upset about that?")Multiple birth where Sherlock is fine but sibling requires specialist early care hospitalisation and a baby swap (it's rare but this is tv land folks ) then the not actual sibling dies.An embryo swap where another Holmes embryo is implanted into someone else.

etc etc really... I probably gave that way too much thought. There are possible hints to some of these scenarios though I'd have to do some trawling to find them all but it's sticking my mental craw right now like a gigantic hound.

Re: Third Brother Theory

Little Weed wrote:

From this there are many possible scenarios which one can delve into,

Multiple birth where Sherlocks sibling dies./stillborn ("Why would she still be upset about that?")Multiple birth where Sherlock is fine but sibling requires specialist early care hospitalisation and a baby swap (it's rare but this is tv land folks ) then the not actual sibling dies.An embryo swap where another Holmes embryo is implanted into someone else.

But if any of these were true, why would Mycroft mention "the other one" during the speech with Lady Smallwood? And why would Lady Smallwood be knowledgable about stillbirths and embryo-swaps that took place cca 35 - 40 years ago in a Holmes family? Because in HLV she acts as if she is aware of the "other one´s" fate when Mycroft mentions it....

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I cannot live without brainwork. What else is there to live for? Stand at the window there. Was there ever such a dreary, dismal, unprofitable world? See how the yellow fog swirls down the street and drifts across the dun-coloured houses. What could be more hopelessly prosaic and material? What is the use of having powers, Doctor, when one has no field upon which to exert them?

Re: Third Brother Theory

nakahara wrote:

Little Weed wrote:

From this there are many possible scenarios which one can delve into,

Multiple birth where Sherlocks sibling dies./stillborn ("Why would she still be upset about that?")Multiple birth where Sherlock is fine but sibling requires specialist early care hospitalisation and a baby swap (it's rare but this is tv land folks ) then the not actual sibling dies.An embryo swap where another Holmes embryo is implanted into someone else.

But if any of these were true, why would Mycroft mention "the other one" during the speech with Lady Smallwood? And why would Lady Smallwood be knowledgable about stillbirths and embryo-swaps that took place cca 35 - 40 years ago in a Holmes family? Because in HLV she acts as if she is aware of the "other one´s" fate when Mycroft mentions it....

It's an Anderson style theory. I just can't conceive the completely dotty Holmes parents having an actually certifiably evil kid... the existing brothers are off kilter enough as it is...

Re: Third Brother Theory

I'm very curious about the "Anemoi"- hints of this season.

If there were Boreas, the cold and strong North wind, Zephyrus, the gentle West wind, who fell in love with a human- the young Spartan prince Hyacinth and Eurus, the unstable East or even Southeast wind.....where is the fourth one, Notus, the capricious South wind???

I guess, the fourth brother (or sister) should be revealed as soon as possible! Pretty please.

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Men should be what they seem, Or those that be not, would they might seem none!

Re: Third Brother Theory

DramaQueen wrote:

I'm very curious about the "Anemoi"- hints of this season.

If there were Boreas, the cold and strong North wind, Zephyrus, the gentle West wind, who fell in love with a human- the young Spartan prince Hyacinth and Eurus, the unstable East or even Southeast wind.....where is the fourth one, Notus, the capricious South wind???

I guess, the fourth brother (or sister) should be revealed as soon as possible! Pretty please.

The comparison of the winds to the characters of Sherlock seems very fitting, indeed.I wouldn´t mind having capricious Notus instead of scary Eurus in the story at all!

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I cannot live without brainwork. What else is there to live for? Stand at the window there. Was there ever such a dreary, dismal, unprofitable world? See how the yellow fog swirls down the street and drifts across the dun-coloured houses. What could be more hopelessly prosaic and material? What is the use of having powers, Doctor, when one has no field upon which to exert them?

Re: Third Brother Theory

DramaQueen wrote:

I'm playing with thoughts to make the South - brother an super agent of Mossad who helped Sherlock to save Mrs. Adler some time ago ("Run!" 👀) !

And generally, he is the great expert of terrorism etc and come back to London on request of British Governement (you know our man there) to fight together against some evil terror organisation.

Wow, what a nice headcanon!

On the other hand, Mark Gatiss was accussed (a bit rightfully, I think) that he is bringing too much "James Bond" into Sherlock - how would it fare if he intruduced this agent brother into the story, I wonder?

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I cannot live without brainwork. What else is there to live for? Stand at the window there. Was there ever such a dreary, dismal, unprofitable world? See how the yellow fog swirls down the street and drifts across the dun-coloured houses. What could be more hopelessly prosaic and material? What is the use of having powers, Doctor, when one has no field upon which to exert them?

Re: Third Brother Theory

Well we can wish for all sorts for any future episodes.But we can't change what happened.A third Holmes brother has been Sherlockian folklore for some time.The BBC team merely took that and twisted it to be a third Holmes child, but a sister.I for one applaud this decision, as it creates a nice gender counterpoise.I've never heard any notion of a fourth child.As I have previously indicated, I think any 'new child' would rather lose its impact, following in the shadow of the belly punch of Eurus.I also don't know if the siblings need another action man, I feel Sherlock fills that role.

Re: Third Brother Theory

besleybean wrote:

A third Holmes brother has been Sherlockian folklore for some time.

Really? I thought that this idea was only introduced by Mofftiss into the Sherlock Canon.

besleybean wrote:

I've never heard any notion of a fourth child.As I have previously indicated, I think any 'new child' would rather lose its impact, following in the shadow of the belly punch of Eurus.I also don't know if the siblings need another action man, I feel Sherlock fills that role.

We know these authors play loose with the original stories and they like to shock the audience, so at this point I would not be surprised if they pulled out the fourth sibling from somewhere.

Hmm, I see Sherlock more as a brainy man and John as his action counterpart, but I kinda see your point....

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I cannot live without brainwork. What else is there to live for? Stand at the window there. Was there ever such a dreary, dismal, unprofitable world? See how the yellow fog swirls down the street and drifts across the dun-coloured houses. What could be more hopelessly prosaic and material? What is the use of having powers, Doctor, when one has no field upon which to exert them?

Re: Third Brother Theory

nakahara wrote:

DramaQueen wrote:

I'm playing with thoughts to make the South - brother an super agent of Mossad who helped Sherlock to save Mrs. Adler some time ago ("Run!" 👀) !

And generally, he is the great expert of terrorism etc and come back to London on request of British Governement (you know our man there) to fight together against some evil terror organisation.

Wow, what a nice headcanon!

On the other hand, Mark Gatiss was accussed (a bit rightfully, I think) that he is bringing too much "James Bond" into Sherlock - how would it fare if he intruduced this agent brother into the story, I wonder?

Thanks, @nakahara! ❤ Pox on " too much Bond "! 😂 We could have this impulsive, quick-tempered and dark-haired youngest brother, who works at hot and dangerous location of Middle-East under the name....Nathan ( a hint on Notus )! But his real name is John, yes - that’s the reason, Sherlock loves this name so much ( on Watson ), because it reminds him of his little, sweet and capricious bro. The Holmes-parents played the part of extraordinary names for their three children and decided to bless the last baby with the common one. 😍

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Men should be what they seem, Or those that be not, would they might seem none!